Music Monitor can manage the records for your allocation of instruments and other resources to students - and to staff!

A hire has a cost associated with it whereas a loan does not, but they are managed in the same module in Music Monitor.

Before you can start loaning resources, you need the items set up in your Resources file. See Manage Resources for guidance.

If you wish to calculate charges in Music Monitor, you need to set up the fees.

Go to Home > Setup Files > Fees. The file opens on Private Tuition Fees, so select Instrument Hire from the top menu.

Any fees you set up in here, with the Fee Category of Instrument Hire, will be available to select as a Hire Description when loaning out any resources.

The same list is available to select from under Bond Description, so if you charge a bond on instrument hires you should set it up here too. Simply name it clearly and give it the correct Amount value.

For more detail, see Manage Instrument Hire Fees.

You can create a Loans & Hire record from the Students file or from the Resources file.

On the Students file is a tab called Loans & Hire. Select that and you will see all the current and past loans & hire for that student.

Select the green + button to add a new hire. Fill in the details.

The Hire Description and Bond Description options are both populated from the Instrument Hire Fees table. When you select the description from the list, the Amount is entered automatically.

If there is a hire cost to the student, you can send the amount/s to Billing immediately using the blue button/s on this screen. (If no fee is entered, the button will not be visible.) Alternatively, you can send a batch of hire fees over to Billing later - see Billing Instrument Hire.

When resources are available to borrow, their record in the resources file has a green New Borrower button on the right-hand end.

You can select a student from the drop-down list to loan the item to.

You can also select to choose from Staff and Other Contacts instead of students, and loan resources to other people in your Contacts file.

Go to Home > Student Activity > Loans & Hire. That displays all your Loans & Hire records sorted in order of Date Borrowed.

You can also see a particular student's Loans & Hire records through a portal in the Students file.

You can loan or hire any other type of resource too, except Rooms. (A room booking is a calendar entry.) The process is generally the same as for hiring instruments. If you're entering it from the Student record, you just select a different Category 1 when selecting the item.

*New in 2026!* From version 9.276 onward, you can loan items in the "Music/Books" category to more than one person. This saves you needing to have a different item record and reference number for every copy you hold of a piece of music.

*New in 2026!* From version 10.003 onward, you can loan items in the "Lockers" category to more than one person.

The screens that allow you to view and check out a loan, listed above, also have a red Quick Return button. To check the item back in with today's date, simply find the item in the resources list or the student's Loans & Hire tab and select that button.

The Navigation Map also has a link to the Loans & Hire file, which lists all current and past loans. You can add today's or any other date as a Return Date in the record in that file. (Note that it is even possible to enter a future date, so use carefully.)

There is an optional field where you can enter a Reason for Return. Once you have records with entries in this field, those entries will form options in a drop-down for you to select when entering the information in other records.

That means it's best to keep these entries very general, so that one of a small number is likely to apply to any circumstance. For example, "Ceased Lessons", "Bought Own Instrument", "Needs Repair", etc.

*New in 2026!* From version 9.274 onward, when you enter a Return Date for an item, you will see a blue Send Confirmation of Return button. That sends a brief email to the related contact confirming the return of the instrument.

Select the Pencil icon to edit the email template.